LED - The New Face of Lighting for Video

For the past few years, there's been a big change in the lighting side of video and film. Traditionally, large fixtures with high output were used on most productions, especially in a medium like filim, which requires stronger lighting to physically burn an image in the celluloid that's running through the camera.

Recent develops in the chips that form the video camera's image sensor have created cameras that are much more sensitive to light, requiring less artificial light than in film or even standard definition video cameras. As a result, the tools that cinematographers use has changed accordingly.

Lights have moved from tungsten and HMI lamps (the term used for the 'bulb' portion of a light fixture), to fluorescent lights that could be dimmed. The advantage with these fluorescents  (as developed by Kino Flo, for example), is that they use almost one-fifth the power required for a tungsten light with the same measurable light output. The lamps ('bulbs') are inexpensive, and the ability to dim the output without dramatically changing colour temperature was highly prized. Plus, these lights could be put in a small form factor and used to illuminate shots with tight spaces, like a car interior for example.

However, the new leader of the lighting pack is the LED fixture. Although LEDs have been in mainstream production use for 2 or 3 years, they're just starting to hit their stride in terms of features and cost.

One of the latest new features, as first seen in the Zylight, and now the iKan and Litepanels product lines, is the ability to set the colour temperature of the light. Indoor scenes are often lit with tungsten lights, at 3200 Kelvin (halogen and existing housing fixtures are usually between 2900 and 3400 K), whereas exterior shooting outdoors might have a colour temperature of 5600 - 6500 K, depending on the time of day, cloud cover, etc. Now, new LED fixtures can be set to match whatever colour temperature you wish, and can even be used for more "special" colours (the green or blue from a neon sign, for example). The Zylight accomplishes this by having its individual LED lights either red, green, or blue, spread in an array across the surface of the lighting face. The combination and ratio of these colours creates the end colour temperature, without the need to use a coloured filter or gel as with traditional lights.

LEDs are also dimmable, and are as or more efficient as fluorescent lights, lightweight, do not require a ballast as HMIs and flourescents do, and tend to provide great omnidirectional fill... Litepanels has recently released an LED fixture, the Sola, that is similar to the traditional fresnel (pronounced FRUH-nell) light, allowing for changes in light focus, lenses, sharper shadows, and longer throw than their broad fill 1x1 or Micro.

On a previous post, HMI lights were discussed. In terms of throw -- how much quantity of light (lumens) reaches X distance -- HMIs and traditional lights have a bit of an edge, but it looks as if the development of the LED will eventually match their efficiency and performance. And of course, LEDs do not require ballasts to regulate power and flicker in the light -- a huge convenience factor. While flourescents offer more lighting output for less money, the price of LEDs are making their way downward, and they are now used frequently on all levels of production.

It will be exciting to see what the next development for LEDs will be!